April 3. 1855
My dear Tom
I greatly fear that it will not be in my power to go down on Wednesday1 – I have an apparatus2 in hand for the Paris Exhibition3 and must remain here until it is complete & ready for packing – This I trust will be tomorrow but too late to permit of my going to Broughton – Next day or Friday I will start – The gods know I am anxious to get out of this and to shake the scientific dust & lethargy from my veins amid the breezes of the country.
I send you a note from Mrs Ginty.4
Your paper on the medium5 pleases me in many respects – you have doubtless thought closely on the matter – You will I imagine be disposed to modify a point or two on reconsideration. For my part your whole reasoning passed through my mind before ever I put my pen to the letter to Faraday.6 But it was not for me to make suppositions – Let this be done by the advocates of the theory7 and when all is done we shall be the better judges of its value as theory. If these suppositions are unnatural, they will diminish in proportion as they are so they need the credibility of the hypothesis whose life they are intended to save – I will hunt up Thomson’s papers8 and bring them to you when I come.
Affectionately Yours | John Tyndall
RI MS JT/1/T/596
to go down on Wednesday: Tyndall had intended to visit Hirst at Queenwood College (Broughton) on the following day, Wednesday, 4 April.
an apparatus: Tyndall contributed ‘Instruments to illustrate magnetic and diamagnetic phenomena’ to Class VIII (‘Arts relating to the Exact Sciences, and to Instruction’), Section 4 (‘Instruments employed in the Study of Physics, Chemistry, and Meteorology, or for Common Use’) at the Exposition Universelle in Paris (Paris Universal Exhibition, 1855. Catalogue of the Works Exhibited in the British Section of the Exhibition (London: Chapman & Hall, 1855), p. 24).
the Paris Exhibition: The Exposition Universelle was held in Paris from 15 May to 15 November 1855.
a note from Mrs Ginty: letter missing.
Your paper on the medium: see letters 1058, n. 3; 1080, n. 8.
the letter to Faraday: letter 1042.
the advocates of the theory: As well as Faraday, Williamson and Thomson advocated a medium in space to account for magnetism.
Thomson’s papers: including Thomson’s ‘Observations on the ‘Magnetic Medium’ and on the Effects of Compression’ (letter 1053) which was published in the April 1855 issue of the Phil. Mag. See also letter 1053, n. 10.
Please cite as “Tyndall1064,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on